The Plan - Thanksgiving '20.

Shortish trip, shortish plan post.

Driving in on this one. Looking forward to the road trip, I've always wanted to do it and now have a reliable enough car to pull it off. Could fly for around double gas cost but would have bag restrictions, the airport would likely be murder and I just want to get out in the Corolla and break it in anyway. 

Assuming (and hoping for) no major traffic, will be getting into town probably somewhere between 8-9p. Pop into the self park garage at Park MGM/NoMad and check in. Once up there I can dump the bag, unpack, take a shower after the long drive to refresh then jump out to the strip, hopefully by 10p latest.

First night in town, taking it very easy, both on money and drinking, as this will be a minimal spend night. That and I'll probably be slightly wasted by the drive and having been up since 7a in the morning. A few drinks, some light dinner somewhere, nothing crazy. Don't want to throw off the sleep clock too much so probably in bed by 1 or 2a. The whole impetus for getting into town that night is just to have 3 full days afterwards.

Wednesday, day one, zero plans for the day. Judging by how this year has been going, Wednesdays have been pretty mellow in terms of things open and things to do, so likely just a hang where and when possible kind of day. A full spend day, but maybe pacing the gambling and higher end lounges this day to kind of ease into the trip and not be penny-pinching the last 2 days. It'd be nice to be worry free money-wise as the trip goes along. Certainly nothing wrong this day with burgers and beer instead of steaks and cocktails. Made a rez at Tom's Urban at NYNY just in case finding food is an issue, probably will cancel depending on where I am on strip at that time. Other than that, let the wind blow me where it will.

Thursday, Thanksgiving. Hopefully wake up refreshed after a good night's sleep, get beautified and head out on the 2nd full day of the trip. No real plan in the daytime, probably will just hit a lunch somewhere and do a little gambling at Cosmo, then hit some of my haunts to soak in the holiday spirit. There'll be football on all day, no teams I care about but good background distraction if the bars are mellow. This'll be my first trip ever in November so not sure what to expect on the holiday. Assume it might be similar to Xmas week. Wander and indulge day.

Turkey night I have a reservation at Bavette's at Park. 2nd time there, first time meh but hopefully since it's a 5:30p reservation, should be able to get in and out quickly and get on with the night. Soaking up the $50 of resort credit here, should be able to use that and maybe $70 more with tip out the door. And that'll likely be the one splurge meal of the trip, coming on the holiday. 

After the meal it's all up in the air, may head down to V/P for the Sam Ross trio but going to try not to get bogged down in there too much, both for spend and not to be too rooted to one set of bars like I did last trip. Now that all the bars are open, I want to make the rounds more than I could the last two trips. Every resort on strip will be open, for the first time for me this year; going to try to be more adventurous with the drinking plan. Could be a late one.

Friday, last full day, no plans whatsoever for the daytime. Not going to have any reservations or pre-set direction, just going to walk out of my room in the morning and see where I end up. No doubt some more Cosmo time, for gambling and maybe food, dunno. Aside from that will just roll with the day/night as it comes. At night with the possible issues with reservations in town, I've made one to cover myself at NoMad Bar. May or may not actually go, depending on how things look, but at least I have something on the books so I don't starve. No need to get to bed early as I'll have no airport to get to the following day, so I can go deep on this last night.

Then it's Saturday, drive out day. Just need to drag my ass out of bed by 10:30a or so to get out by check out time, grab a Gatorade or three to kick the hangover and start the drive back. With any traffic luck I'm back to the hobbit hole by 7-8p and have the Sunday to recover from the debauchery.

So that's a Thanksgiving pop-up trip, then. Wasn't expecting it but am damn sure looking forward to it. Trying driving in for the first time and excited to test out the legs on the new car. One month away, now.